John Cleese Claims He’s Quitting Twitter
“Good bye, Twitter.”
That was John Cleese’s foreboding message to his 5.5 million followers on Twitter, er, X.com last night. Given that this post was Cleese’s 67th since Labor Day (that’s about 10 tweets a day if you don’t want to get out your calculator), it will be interesting to see if his tweet was truly a final bon voyage or more in line with those “we mean it this time!” Monty Python farewell reunion tours.
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What set Cleese off enough to make him (maybe) leave the platform? After all, users regularly get his goat, setting off Tweet flurries as he argues with fans over who really understands Monty Python comedy. Yesterday’s offender seems to be none other than the big boss himself, Elon Musk, who had shared a “100” emoji in response to a slam on presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Musk has tweeted worse, but Cleese was on an anti-Trump tear last week, shout-posting about Trump’s incoherent speeches on the campaign trail. While not a U.S. citizen, Cleese is a long-time entertainer on this side of the pond. “I care about America because I’ve been coming here since 1964,” he tweeted last week, “and I care for a lot of people here.”
That’s why he’s been posting videos of stumbling Trump speeches, claiming the candidate is just as cognitively compromised as Joe Biden. “Completely addled,” declared Cleese. “Will he have his finger on the Doctor Nuclear Bacon when the shark comes for him and Cary Grant in a swimsuit?”
Will Cleese be able to stay away? After all, losing his social media platform means limiting his ability to raise money for a Terry Jones statue…
…or share clips from his old corporate training films.
One person who’s not convinced that Cleese is gone for good? That’s daughter Camilla, with whom he's supposedly remaking Fawlty Towers. You can practically hear her eyes rolling in response to dad’s foot-stomping tantrum. “This won’t age well,” she predicted to her famous father. “See you in the morning!”